Category Archives: Just My Thoughts

Reaping What You Sow

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Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:7-10

Have you ever been told possibly by a parent, “You reap what you sow.” I know I have more than once, and I’ve said it to our own children.

Our life lessons learned through our Garden Experiment have already begun. The weeds are having a party in our gardens, and we are determined to eradicate them naturally. The blisters between my thumb and forefinger and on the palms of my hand are a reminder to me of the hard work required to reap a bountiful harvest hopefully in due time. I don’t like wearing gloves. I know, it would help with the blisters, but like holding a good book in my hands, I also like to feel the hoe as I work.

The following pictures were taken yesterday of our children’s garden plots from oldest to youngest. We had a torrential downpour the day after we planted this garden, much of which was seeds, so some of the children lost precious seeds down the hillside. But not to despair, some have jumped at the opportunity to plant more seeds, and all but one have worked hard at eradicating those weeds.

For the oldest, he does have some weeds but he has parsley and dill coming up through them, so he is tending them carefully as he strives to not pull out the good stuff while keeping the bad stuff from taking root.

This plot belongs to Curly, 15

This plot belongs to Curly, 15

This plot belongs to Larry, 14.

This plot belongs to Larry, 14.

Oh, the life lessons! Have you wondered what your heart might look like if you think of it as a flower garden? Would it be full of precious and beautiful blooms, or would it be full of pesky weeds that seem to have no real function other than choking out the precious flowers? Continue reading →

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I’m Back But I’m Not the Same: My Mission Trip to China

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10 Posts in 10 Days turned into 3 Posts in 3 Days.

The days leading up to my departure for China were full of last-minute drug store runs and moments of freaking out about what I was about to do. I didn’t know on February 20 I would be leaving for China in less than 3 months.

February 21 came and I read an email referencing this post on our adoption agency’s blog. They had an urgent need for more team members for an upcoming mission trip. Our agency has a mission-sending aim in addition to helping families adopt children from several countries including China, where we found four of our children waiting for a family!

I read the excerpt from the blog post in that email and it was like I knew. I didn’t really dismiss the prompting I felt, but I did wonder how in the world would I go to China and the logistics of all of it. I sent an email that night to the email link not really knowing for sure who would receive it. As it turns out, a lady, who had followed our journey to our first daughter in 2008 and is an adoptive parent herself, is now working for our adoption agency to coordinate all the China mission trips. She emailed me back that evening with answers to two specific questions I asked.

In her email back to me, two things she said stood out:

The purpose of this trip is simply to serve wherever we are needed in this orphanage.  Because we have not been able to work in this specific orphanage, we are not exactly sure what the needs are of this orphanage.

We will need to decide if this trip is a GO or not in the next week, or less.

OK. Breathe I told myself. A week or less? Serve where needed. I can definitely do that I thought, though the emotions and depth of that service proved to be one of the hardest and most rewarding five days of my life thus far. Continue reading →

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Are You a Proverbs 31 Woman?

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Do you ever read about the Proverbs 31 woman and think, Why can’t I be like her?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve found life to feel quite defeating lately. If I were to judge or evaluate my worth purely on circumstances regarding our family—relationships, choices, words spoken, and so much more … I would surely not find my value or worth to be worth much at all. Anyone else able to relate?

I am even told on a regular basis things that devalue who I am, what I pour my heart into everyday, and what I perceive to be one of my God-given purposes in this life. Continue reading →

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We Are Done with the iPod

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It is finished.

Case closed.

The Prez never wanted them. But he agreed finally.

15 months was enough.

One is broken. Two are strangely missing (actually this happens a lot). One is tucked away at the moment.

I’m certain and the Prez will be thrilled with my certainty.

They aren’t coming back.

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If you have a child or have had a child who has basically disengaged with everyone and everything and is desperate for his iPod at all costs, then you understand.

If you don’t understand, be very grateful.

We have three children who are not addicted to games like mine craft and roblox and clash of clans.

Then we have another who is addicted. It has changed him. In a bad way.

The Lord has repeatedly brought a particular Scripture to my mind in recent days. It wasn’t just for me, though I desperately needed the Word too.

But I am certain it was the voice of The Lord for our son too, one of the ones whose actions and attitudes have brought the Prez and I to a place of desperate, face-to-the-floor prayers.

“LORD, bring them back to You. You say You never let go. Why does it seem like You have?”

And then this over and over again:

“Finally,brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Philippians 4:8

The iPod as it was here just doesn’t line up with this Word. It is the opposite.

I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know the iPod isn’t going to a part of our home anymore.

They aren’t welcome in our home anymore.

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The Decision to Not Homeschool

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In an earlier post, I referenced the fact that two of our children will be going back to public school next year. One of my readers asked if I might share how we came to that decision.

I definitely can’t go into the nitty-gritty details of why, but I know it must be a question for others. I am literally asking the Lord to show me HOW to do this because homeschooling has been what we do for nearly 5 years now.

I am not sure how to start and where to stop.

I have alluded to the fact that we’ve been dealing with some issues here in our home, and I have shared before about the difficult journey we’ve found ourselves upon as parents to children from hard places and/or with problematic behaviors.

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I just can’t go into a lot of details, but I will say in general that lack of respect is a major sticking point. I remember a seasoned homeschool Momma telling me years ago that it is impossible if not extremely difficult to teach your own children if they have a general lack of respect for you and/or don’t respect home rules in general. That is definitely a place we’ve found ourselves camped out for quite some time with some of our children, despite what I think are our best efforts (if exhaustion is any indication) to try and redirect them. Continue reading →

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About a Boy (Who Happens to Have One-Sided Deafness)

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Please allow me a blog post to BRAG on our youngest little man. He is 8 1/2 and has been home with his forever family for 45 months now. He spent his first 60 months of life on earth in China in a rural orphanage. Statistics show that most institutionalized children will exhibit one month of delay for every 3 months spent in an institution. For our little dude, that translates to 20 months of delay or him being roughly 3 /12 years developmentally when he came home. He was far from it, testing at around 2 years developmentally that first summer home.

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He is such a little love. Actually, he is becoming a big little love, and I predict will be taller than his Momma by the time he reaches double digits.

But back to this boy, who does happen to be deaf in one ear. If you’d like to read more about unilateral deafness, ASHA has a great page that sums it up and helps others to know what to look for in a young child who might be unilaterally deaf.

Continue reading →

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Easy Ways to Share the Love on Valentine’s Day

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With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to share a post about ways to share the love with others around you on Valentine’s Day.

One thing I’ll promise is that these are EASY things to do! With six children in the mix and mayhem and memories that are made here, I am usually not able to put together anything that requires more than three ingredients … whether it be food or art … or both!

Valentine’s Family Dinner

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These first few photos are from our Valentine Dinner last year. For several years now, Valentine’s Day has been a celebration of our family rather than for just the Prez and me to celebrate LOVE. I will admit that sometimes it would be nice to go out on a date, but our reality is that this is just not a reality right now.

So, I decided several years ago we would start a new Valentine’s Day tradition of having a meal complete with foods I know our kids LOVE, and that have a color theme of red and pink!

Continue reading →

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What Is Homeschooling?

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I get asked a lot or rather people will just say (rather than ask): “I don’t see how you do it. Teach all of them at different levels and ages. I couldn’t do it.”

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{Deep breath.}

I don’t teach them all.

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GASP. (Did any of you just gasp?) Continue reading →

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